Polaroid Love

Did you see that last week was 'Roid Week 2008 on Flickr (I'm always at least a week behind on these things). Check it out.  Above are some of my favorites from the week (click on the photo for credits). There's also the upcoming For the Love of Light: A Tribute to the art of Polaroid, which I'm excited to see.

In a chapter on kids and cameras in my book, there's a bit about Polaroids - which was written, of course, before the sad news that Poloroid would stop producting it's film (check out Save Polaroid). Since hearing the news, I've been a little stingy with the film we have left. Though, admittedly, at $1 a pop, I was pretty stingy before. But up until now, I haven't been ready to deal with kids digital cameras, and I'm not a fan of all the disposableness with the disposable cameras. I keep intending to pick up a couple of point and shoot film cameras for the kids, and I suppose now with the Polaroid news that will be happening sooner rather than later.

But we do love our "one a day" Polaroid action so much. The kids really think about the shot they want to take, and the 'instant' result of watching the photograph develop in front of their eyes is quite magical. They rotate their photos in and out of display (above), and eventually they land in each of their own photo albums.

One thing I really love that they do with the Polaroids is create new art with them. Ezra often will take a picture of something, and then come inside to 'recreate' it on paper.

Can you read that? It says, "This is hard to make". I guess that was an important declaration for him to make about this one. It makes me smile.

Are your childhood albums full of Polaroids too? The camera the kids use was my grandfather's. And I remember my grandmother with hers in hand often - and her photo albums full of the little squares with - more often than not - her handwritten notes on the white strip below. Ah, Polaroid.

So, I'm curious. What are your children doing with cameras? Have you found "kids" digital cameras that you're pleased with? Is there a designated kids camera in your family? Or is film the answer for you/them? I'm all ears, as we think about expanding our options here!